“Lord, show us the Father…”
– JOHN 14:8

It’s hard to avoid the question: “What is wrong with the world?” as we look out over the landscape of the last few weeks. While there is beauty and mystery, hope and promise, there is also unspeakable pain and unknowable suffering. We wonder where God has gone? We wonder why it feels as though evil has the upper hand on things that are right and good. We need a place to run and hide. We need a refuge from things. We need someone to tell us that evil doesn’t get to win (even when victory feels more like wishful thinking than anything else) — a 21st century version of Quixote’s “impossible dream.”

Jesus’ closest group of followers — his inner circle, on the night of his betrayal and arrest, are told by their leader that he will leave them. Jesus informs them that evil will have an apparent upper hand and that the systems and powers of the world (those influences behind the influencers) will send him to a criminal’s death. Jesus will tell them ultimately, however incomprehensibly, that life will prevail over death. Having eaten together and having seen Jesus’ humility poured out over them as he washed their feet, one of them, while trying to make sense of all of what Jesus is revealing, makes a simple request:

“Philip said, ‘Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.'”

Said differently: “Jesus, we can’t make sense of the evil that is going to take you from us. We can’t get our heads around the idea of your departure, nor the seemingly delusional notion that somehow you’re going to rise from the dead.” So… just “show us the father… that will be enough.” In short, “we need our dad. We need a father.” Dads matter. The Father matters.

No matter the quality of our experience of being “fathered,” no one denies the necessity of a father. The disciples express our own heart’s desire: to be sons and daughters connecting neither to a distant patriarch, nor a philosophy, nor a disciplinarian. But, to a dad. For those who are dads, we wonder if we measure up. A small minority of us live with the reality (or even the living memory) of a great dad. That community of people is rare and beautiful — a reason to be thankful. For others of us — those for whom there is an apparent dad-gap — we perpetually live wondering if there’s a missing piece within us. Again, no matter the experience of our father, we need a dad.

So, we’ll honor the best of fathers this Sunday at Mariners MV — the protector, the inspirer, the strength, the fan, the one who gives us that tough love, and the occasional sage. To those who are fathers, to those who will become a father, those who serve as fathers to the fatherless, let’s celebrate together because we can all admit we need dads. The best way to honor fathers… is to live as children. Mariners MV will honor dads in a big way: we’ll have feats of strength (literally, the winner at each service will get a gift certificate for a steak dinner… No, not Sizzler or even Outback… better), patio games, mustache temporary tattoos, grilled meat and great music. Don’t let your dad miss it. It’s going to be great.

Happy Father’s Day!
Jeff

Dads, we’re their number one fans! We want to thank them for reminding us how they did it back in the day, to walk it off, and that a little hard work never hurt anyone. Join us as we honor the fathers in our lives with fun activities and of course, food.

FATHER’S DAY
Sunday, June 19
9 & 11a (after services)

To volunteer, contact Kasaundra, kdomen@marinerschurch.org

Help those who are ready to take the next steps to get off the street as we build relationships through games, dessert, and stories. More info here and register.

HOMELESS MINISTRY
Sat, Jun 18, 5:30-8p
Salvation Army, Santa Ana

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
– JAMES 1:22

What do you call that person who’s  more than an acquaintance, but who hasn’t not quite summited the friendship plateau? It’s that person with whom you’ve never done anything together outside of where you happen to run into each other. Nevertheless, that guy is a good guy. We both take an interest in the other person’s goings-on. As we were catching up recently, he asked me about what was happening in the church. I got to tell him the best story…

I got to tell him about the thing that makes us, us. I got to tell him how much fun our church is. I probably got a little too “pastor-y”: speaking with a slightly less conversational cadence, pausing with more drama, fluctuating the dynamics of my tone and tempo, and over gesticulating. This kind of talking and speaking is, by the way, why people get weirded out by pastors. I was slipping into becoming the thing I work so hard to NOT be. I really couldn’t help it. There is so much to be excited about in our church. Foremost among those things, is the one thing that’s the easiest to communicate to an outsider looking in on the church:

I told him about  Serve Day.

People may not understand all of what we believe. Make no mistake, we believe some very wild things. Even within the church, people engage in spirited conversations about lots of things in the Bible. But, at the core of the biblical message is the person of Jesus of Nazareth: a man born under the reign of Augustus Caesar in a rebellious outpost of the Roman Empire, who was purported to have been some kind of miracle-worker, who envisioned himself as the centerpiece of something called the “kingdom of God” as God’s favored son, who challenged religio-political authority, who was killed, and who rose again… and, whose supernatural presence gives some kind of inexplicable power to people in the present to live more fully as they were intended. C’mon, that is a lot to take in.

What is not hard to understand is what people DO with those beliefs. Specifically, does that kind of belief in a Spirit-motivated power result in something beautifully contagious? Does it leave people feeling as though they’re on the outside looking in? Is it a kind of spiritual justification for elitism? To actively serve the community doesn’t address all the bigger questions of theology: the Bible, God, death, heaven, etc. But, it absolutely tells the story of what a group of people committed to Jesus, DO with their faith.

Serve Day paints the picture that sometimes Jesus is most evident through calloused hands and sweaty brows, shovels and hammers, bricks and paint, trash pick-up and landscaping, sandwiches and tacos, live music and kid-oriented play-and-serve areas. To explain to someone that we’re a church committed to seeing the community bettered by our presence makes sense. So, come with us this Sunday from 1pm-5pm at Linda Vista Elementary School and personally acquire a fresh story about what your church is doing with what we believe. Come to church dressed and ready to work. Show up and be amazed by the church community you call home. Save yourself (and your kids) the hassle of a potentially long registration line on the day of by registering here.

See you soon,

Jeff

Mobilizing our WHOLE church to build a GREAT city

Join us for an amazing beautification project and community celebration! We will spend the afternoon at Linda Vista Elementary School working on playgrounds, various painting projects and so much more throughout the school. For more info search “serve” or click here to register.

ServeDay 3.0
Sun, Jun 12, 1-5p

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
– JAMES 1:22

I’m always curious about the person driving next to me. We all are. Who drives that kind of car? I wonder if they’re listening to the same song on the radio that I am (When that happens, it feels like it should be accompanied by a rainbow in the sky or a free dinner at Chili’s. Somehow, we feel mystically bonded, one driver to another — like we were meant to be there together). Driving around last Saturday afternoon, I was struck by a handful of cars whose drivers held striking similarities in their appearance. All the drivers were young and over-dressed. Hair was done. Make-up was perfect. The occupants were visibly nervous with each other. I took particular notice of one guy who drove with hands firmly on the 10-2 position on the steering wheel of his family’s high performance minivan, and whose lapel was adorned with a tiny white rose and baby’s breath. It dawned on me that he, like the others I had seen, was on his way to prom.

I started to think back on the holy terror that accompanied asking someone to a big dance. Of course, all dances are big — the specific mass of any dance can always be measured by the degree of fear associated with the asking. I clearly remember the build up to one particular junior high school dance. While it lacked the pomp and formality of the dances that would later arrive in my high school years, it still held a particularly terrifying trait: not in the asking someone to the dance, but rather, asking someone to dance. I had made the task even more painful by announcing to my friends that I was going to ask a specific girl to dance with me.

She was, like so many girls, a distant galaxy away from being in my “league.” My friends mocked. But, I was resolute… at the lunch table. I fully believed, with unparalleled conviction that I would ask her to dance. I felt confident, sure, solid. Besides, she was kind. She lacked the arrogance befitting someone of her beauty. Then, I saw her… at her lunch table, with her pretty friends, and her perfect sandwich, days from the dance itself. Whatever nerves I had at the thought of asking, despite my momentary surge in self-assurance, now took on a new energy of uncontrollable trepidation intent on destroying me. The reality of what I had just declared punched me in the gut with crippling power. I knew then that I had given myself my own impossible standard. My friends would hold me to what I believed and declared to be my intended future. And on Friday night, somewhere between Milli Vanilli, Roxette, and Bobby Brown, Richard Marx’ “Right Here Waiting” would clear the dance floor of all the fearful. At that moment, all my stupid friends would be glaring at me to see if my words of confidence and my predicted actions would converge in actually dancing.

With their relentless gaze my friends stared and challenged my burgeoning manhood. I asked her to dance.  I nearly died. (NOTE: My memory of this moment was almost perfectly captured by the short-lived television show, Freaks and Geeks here. See if you can find yourself in it, too.) But, she said “yes.” She was kind. I don’t think we ever really spoke again. I guess my “Blue Angels” t-shirt and my over-sized retainer were just too much for her to handle. She let one get away. Her loss.

That idea, however — not the dance, nor the music, but the marriage of belief and words and action — is the central, guiding notion of our next few weeks worth of messages. We’ll look at a book of the Bible written in the infancy of the early church that called people to do more than listen, or hear, or learn, or speak about what they believed. Instead, this letter called people to act, to live, to demonstrate the power of their conviction by the way their faith was set in motion. It is one thing to declare an intention or a belief and another to live it. Together, let’s see what challenge lies ahead for us. It’s going to be a great series.

See you soon,

Jeff

This exciting weekend is filled with worship and blessings as we celebrate 5th grade students during their last weekend in Port Mariners before heading to Jr. High Ministry on Jump Up Weekend (June 12).

PROMOTION COMMOTION
Sun, Jun 5, Port Mariners

Prepare for an evening of connection and dessert. Joanne Russell, founder of REAL Women Ministry, will inspire us with great conversations. Search “Dessert” or click here to register.

WOMEN: SWEET INSPIRATION DESSERT NIGHT
Sun, Jun 7, 9p, $10 

“Then Job replied:  ‘Listen carefully to my words; let this be the consolation you give me. Bear with me while I speak, and after I have spoken, mock on.’”
– JOB 21:1-3

When someone we care about is in the midst of great tragedy, we all ask the same question of ourselves: “What should I say?” We inherently know there’s nothing — no words that are ever enough to salve the deepest wounds of loss. The trouble is, we believe that there ARE some words that are adequate and we’re certain that because we can’t locate those words, that WE are inadequate. So, we choose to avoid, neglect, or try to minimize the loss.

But, that action (or, more accurately: inaction) winds up being about us. The hurting person then, lives with the experience of a double-loss: the impact of the tragedy itself and the sense of abandonment by those who can’t find the words. For Job, as the great sufferer of the Bible, he has endured loss. His friends come to him with a number of words in an attempt to bring his suffering to a kind of resolution that makes THEM feel COMFORTABLE. They talk. They blame. They believe their words are the answer Job is seeking.

Job has this insight for all of us: “LISTEN carefully to my words; let THIS be the consolation you give me. Bear with me while I speak…” I’m still learning, in the midst of being a pastor — one expected to have answers and reasons — that the great gift I can give is the use of fewer words, not more. I’m learning how to skillfully replace the question: “How are you?” with this: “It seems like it’s been really tough lately” and then waiting… and waiting… and waiting until they speak. I’m learning that a hug given in silence is a far greater gift than perfected words of wisdom.

In a world intent on expressing every thought with clever diction and winsome wordsmithing, silent support stands uniquely among all the ways in which we can care for the hurting. So, to those who hurt: the ones who have come in pain, the ones whose sorrow could not be undone in a single conversation, for those who have felt as if no one could ever understand, I apologize for failing to embrace silence with greater affection.

For as long as we dwell among other people, we’ll encounter pain — their pain and ours. Perhaps, we’ll continue to learn with greater and greater compassion and skill how to truly “be there” for those who hurt.

See you soon,

Jeff

Spend time with the “Men of Mariners” at this year’s “MAN CAMP” at Forest Home. Speakers include Kenton Beshore, Kyle Zimmerman, Jeff Maguire and Eric Heard. GET OUTDOORS, EAT, BE KNOWN, HAVE FUN, MAN UP! Details and register here or search “man camp” on our website.

MAN CAMP
Fri, Jun 3, 3p–Sun, Jun 5, 11a, $199, Forest Home